For Better, For Worse - An Eternal Love of Dreams Fan Fiction (One Shot Takes)

All In

"What are you doing here?"  Xiao Bai asked without preamble when she realized it was actually Donghua who was sitting in one of the rickety wooden chair in the small alcove near the back of the restaurant where she worked.  He was calmly drinking tea as if his being there was not something out of the ordinary.  At first, she had been startled by his presence when she walked in being the last person she would have expected to see after so long.  She stared at him for a few minutes thinking that he could be a hallucination brought forth by the yearnings in her heart, she had not seen him since the night before the aborted wedding banquet and it took everything in her not to throw herself into his arms and weep.  She clenched her fist to her side as she addressed him.

"I'm just passing by." Donghua said, his hands, holding a teacup, trembling a little, as he, too, had to stop himself from touching her.  He had taken on the appearance of a young nobleman in Xi'an Chang City but he should have known he would not be able to mask himself fully from his Xiao Bai.  He drank in the sight of her, the happiness he felt being so near to her warring with the guilt knowing that he had abandoned her.  She still looked as beautiful as the last last time he had seen her but much, much thinner.   He could see the wariness in her now as she looked at him so different from the warmth she always exuded when she was around him.  He really missed her, missed everything about her.  He knew he had no one to blame but himself.  

"You're just passing by." she echoed flatly.  Because the Supreme God of the Universe had nothing to do so he had decided to "drop by" at a restaurant found in an obscure town in the middle of nowhere in the Mortal Realms on a random day.  "Why are you really here?"  she asked brusquely trying to gain back her equilibrium, not wanting him to see how much his presence affected her.  Isn't it enough that I cry myself to sleep and wake up dreaming about you every night?  Must you now plague even my daytime?  She thought to herself.  But even she knew that she was lying to herself because there was nothing in the Universe she wanted more than to see him, her Donghua.  Even now, she could feel the joy palpitating in her heart at his presence.

"I wanted to see how you were."  he finally said, his voice as soft as a whisper now. His presence there was unplanned.  He had lied to himself telling himself that he only wanted a glimpse of her for a few minutes but the truth was, he really wanted her back.  After coming out of seclusion,  the only thing he knew was that he had to see her, he had to be with her.  He knew he had to deal with Miao Luo soon, knew that he would likely perish with the Demoness when the time came but in the meantime, he wanted her.    

"Why now? After 2324 days. Isn't it a little too late?" He could hear the slight bitterness in her voice even as she tried to mask it. She looked discomfited for inadvertently revealing that she had been counting the days they have been apart from each other.  Xiao Bai grimaced inwardly.  Everyday when she woke up, she automatically added another day to her mental tally of days she was not with him.  She had been wondering how long this hollowness would last, wondering if there will come a time when she'll wake up and he would not be the first thing on her mind.    "I'm fine, as you can see. Still functioning." she gestured towards herself, her voice as cold as ice now.  Love and hate may be two sides to the same coin but she's never been able to see the other side because all he was to her was love.  Sometime, though, she wanted to hate him for finding it so easy to leave her when she was still barely functioning without him, even after so many years.  She wanted to run to her room and cry.  She wanted to ask him how he could just leave her like that.  She wanted to rail against him for being so callous with her heart.  But she did not do any of that.  She just looked at him holding his gaze for a few seconds knowing that it didn't really matter any more, it was all water under the bridge now anyway.  He had not trusted her enough to tell her what was happening, did not even feel that she warranted the courtesy of being told to her face that he was leaving her.    "I have work to do.  Just do what you want to do, that's what you always do anyway."  she said turning away from him, not trusting herself to stay and continue speaking to him afraid that she'll break down and cry in front of him and beg him to stay.  She hated how much she still loved him even after so long.  As it was, she could feel the tears prickling her eyes.